


Child of Rao

by Delamour



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Gen, Headcanon, Krypton, Origin Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-31 01:17:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10888809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delamour/pseuds/Delamour
Summary: Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.— Arthur Conan Doyle





	Child of Rao

_“This is Rebel Arrow One, can anybody hear us? Anybody there?”_

_Captain Ryon didn’t want to admit that she was lost in space._

_The raid on the science station on Libra IV had gone exactly as planned, and she had expected smooth sailing all the way home. Not … this._

_Sure, the warp drive was experimental, but it had been “experimental” for years, and it had never failed before. If it hadn’t been for those hunter drones and their anti-matter bombs, she wouldn’t have had to activate the drive at 87% charge. In the middle of an anti-matter explosion. Ignoring her chief engineer’s warning about the strange radiation from the terramorpher they had stolen._

_It just had to be done, this mission was too important to fail—and now it had._

* * *

“So, how was it?” Kara looks at Alex expectantly. It had been really hard to get Alex to watch a sci-fi show, they always got her complaining about writers not knowing science, scientist not observing proper lab protocol, and everybody else ignoring proper quarantine rules. Kara finally made her grudgingly accept to give the original Star Trek series a chance. 

“It’s OK, I guess. It’s like they are not even trying to be realistic, so it’s hard to fault them for not succeeding.” Alex looks at Kara, who is waiting for the final verdict with held-back breath. “Let’s do one more.” 

“Yey!” Kara untangles one arm from the blanket and hits the “play” button, then quickly puts the arm back. 

“You and blankets!” Alex mocks. “It’s not like you need one to keep warm!” 

“Just because I can endure more cold doesn’t mean I have to like it. You know I just like it _warm_  and _cozy_  and _soft_. Who wouldn’t?!” 

Alex knows, the blanket was a house-warming gift from herself, but that doesn’t mean she can’t tease her sister anyway. 

_… to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go …_

“It’s actually funny,” Kara changes the subject, “people used to criticize this show because all its aliens were so human-like, and now that aliens are here—it turns out they _are_  almost all pretty human-like. Pretty stupid, eh? 

“It’s not _that_ stupid, actually. Aliens who _choose_  to visit Earth are much more likely to be ones that will fit in. Ones that will, say, fit through a door, who can turn a door handle, or maybe even be able to drive a car. The better they can blend in, the more they look like humans, the more likely it is that they are still here. It’s a self-selecting sample. The odds would be very different if we met a random alien race in space.” 

“Sooooo…” Kara is obviously thinking. “You are saying that there are lots of … exotic … races out there, and they just don’t go to Earth.” 

“As far as we know, yes. If a race isn’t carbon-based and oxygen breathing, Earth is probably a pretty crappy place to be, and if they want to interact with humans, being roughly human-like is a big advantage.” Alex smiles. “Or if they are water-breathing and fish-like, we just haven’t caught any yet.” 

“So it was really lucky that my parents, and Kal’s, found Earth for us. I wouldn’t have wanted growing up on a planet of pudding creatures!” 

Alex drains her glass slowly. “Sure, very lucky. Now, hush, the show has started.” 

* * *

“Alex!” 

“Mmmmhmm?” Alex puts down her ice cream. 

“You were dodging me earlier!” Kara is looking at her intently. “When I joked about it being lucky I was sent to Earth. I think it was a pretty good joke, but you didn’t laugh. And you changed the subject. What are you not saying?”

Alex groans inwardly. Sweet oblivious Kara, except when you _want_ her to not notice something. Then she’s on you like a bloodhound. “‘Twas nothing.” 

“I don’t believe you!” Kara crosses her arms and scowls. Alex knows, from abundant experience, how this will play out—she’ll keep insisting that it’s nothing, Kara will get more agitated, then she’ll give up and start pouting, and then Alex will surrender. She sighs, and surrenders. 

“It’s just … you don’t just fit in well on Earth. I mean, J’onn _fits in_ , he can pass as a human because he’s a shape changer, and he acts like a human most of the time, but he really still is an alien. Or Lyra, she’s pretty humanoid, but she’s still obviously alien. You, you feel like you _belong_. If you weren’t super strong and invulnerable, _nobody_  would notice that you’re not a normal human.” 

“I’m sure that’s why Jor and Zor picked Earth. They knew humans looked just like Kryptonians.” 

“No, Kara. Or yes, but that’s not the point. Sure, it was a great choice, but the odds of there being _any_  other planet with a race that is _identical_  to Kryptonians is … it's just not there. Even in an infinite universe. You have _fingerprints._  Your ears ducts are shaped just like a human’s, your hand and feet bones are just like a human’s. You have lungs, heart, and blood, and heck, even a _spleen_. You have sweat glands, even if you never use them. Tonsils. And don’t get me started on genitals!” 

“Yes, please don’t!” 

“But I’m sure it’d work. Daxamites are descended from Kryptonians, right?” 

Kara nods, reluctantly, she can guess where this is headed. 

“And from what you said, Mon-El and … Eve? … were very compatible.” 

Kara grimaces. “Ew! I did _not_ need to be reminded of that!” 

“Sorry. But still, it's _too_  perfect. The biggest difference is that your intestines are shriveled up because your amazing metabolism absorbs everything you eat.” 

“What’s gotten into you, Alex? We know all that, but you never flipped out about it before?” 

“Sorry. Sorry. I’m being weird, I know. It’s just … I made a mistake in the lab the other day. I was looking at a cell sample, and I thought it was odd that this human cell was full of stuff that shouldn’t be there. Then I double checked—I was looking at a sample we took from you back when you solar-flared last year. And I had thought it was human. It had the same structure, and cells might be small, but the are pretty complex and amazing structures. It’s like Kryptonian cells are just much _better_  at doing the same things, like they are human cells that have been optimized and improved, but they still look so very human.” 

Kara doesn’t know what to say. She’s trying to figure out what it all means. “Are you saying that humans are descended from Kryptonians too?” 

Alex rubs her forehead. “I don’t know. I don’t know what it all means … but probably not that, no. There is this theory that all life comes from someone spreading the seeds of life throughout the galaxy, and that way all life has the same origin. That theory is used to explain why different races look so alike. It’s complete hogwash, though.” 

“It’s … hogwash?” That’s a strong word coming from Alex. 

“OK, maybe not completely, it could explain why there are so many aliens that have the same basic shape as life on Earth—you know, bilateral symmetry, one head, four limbs with five digits, possibly a tail.” 

“So they are humanoid?” 

“Not even close. That basic shape is also used by fish and birds, pretty much all complex life on Earth, and many alien races, not all humanoid. Something starting from that doesn’t have to become human-like, it could become a fish. Maybe someone did spread the seeds, but after that, it’s just evolution. And we can trace human evolution back to small mammals living at the same time as the dinosaurs. If starting from the same seed makes evolution end out the same way, we should look the same as hedgehogs.” 

“So, the chance that Humans and Kryptonians looks exactly the same is …” 

“By chance, it's zero. It’s just not plausible. That is, if they evolved independently. So most likely they didn’t … and that’s where I’m stuck, because I can’t explain the connection.” 

Kara looks contemplative. “It’s funny, actually. Humans have this long history of how they originated. We never had that on Krypton. Our history was all about social development, how we left behind wars, hunger and disease, but there was nothing before that. I always thought that the early planet-wars had erased the knowledge, they were … pretty thorough, but nobody ever looked for fossils or anything similar. The only story we had was that Rao created Krypton and everything on it.” 

“That _is_  odd. Krypton was big on both science and history, right?” 

“It was. We had history going back hundreds of thousands of years, but it was always about Kryptonian society. Like there was never a time before society.” 

“Hmm. Definitely odd.” Alex is silent for a while. “Anyway, one more episode?” 

* * *

_“It’s the warp core, Captain.” Chief engineer Lee has finally completed his check of the engine._

_“What about it?”_

_“It’s gone.”_

_Captain Ryon closes her eyes and counts to ten. “How?”_

_“Not sure, the readings are all over the place. I guess it was completely spent when we created the warp tube. But, with that much energy … Cap, I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more.”_

_“Can we create a new core?”_

_“Not a chance. The tech is so secret that nobody here knows it. Not on a mission like ours, couldn't risk us getting caught. I had special orders to blow the ship to prevent its capture.” Lee looks away embarrassed. “Sorry about that, Captain.”_

_“It’s OK, I had the same orders.” That, and make sure Lee couldn’t talk. No need to say that now. “So, we’re stuck … and lost.”_

_“True, but we still have propulsion, and there is a planet system nearby that we should be able reach in a few months. It has at least one goldilocks planet.”_

_“Habitable?”_

_“Not as such, no, but … we did steal a terramorpher.”_

_“We didn’t steal it for ourselves, Lee,” Ryon sighs, “but if we won’t be able to get it back to Earth anyway …”_

_“It’s your call, Captain. I just don’t see a lot of alternatives.”_

_“Get me some numbers, from you and from McTeal, on what we need to survive there.”_

_“Aye, Captain.”_

* * *

“So, Winn, that’s the problem,” Alex had been fishing for ideas for a while now, but she had run out of scientists to bother, so now Winn was next in line, “Kryptonians are so similar to humans that it’s suspicious, but they have existed longer than recorded human history.” 

“And humans are not descendants of Kryptonians?” 

“No, clearly not.” 

“Then Kryptonians are descended from humans.” Winn’s expression makes it clear that he thinks his idea is obvious. 

“But they can’t be, advanced Kryptonian civilization goes back hundreds of thousands of years. Even if someone back then took a group of human ancestors from Earth and put them on Krypton, and helped them evolve and advance to civilization, they would still have looked differently, and have evolved differently after that. A lot has happened to Homo Sapiens in the last few hundred thousand years.” 

“Well, maybe they took modern humans then. You know, time travel! Perhaps soon, we’ll be homesteading the past!” 

“That’s your idea? Time travel?” Alex rolls her eyes. 

“I’m a sci-fi geek, not a scientist, what did you expect?” He gives Alex a challenging gaze. “I don’t see you coming up with a better explanation, hmm?” 

* * *

_“It’s an old M-class dwarf star. Old, and fairly docile as red dwarves go, its X-ray bursts are weak and rare. The planet is just close enough that if we add an atmosphere with sufficient greenhouse gasses, it could stay habitable.” Science officer McTeal puts up a bunch of graphs. “I have calculated the optimal environment, one that can stay stable for a very long time. Lee?”_

_“Thanks, McTeal. The terramorph should be able to create the environment that we want. It’ll take time, probably a few years, and require a lot of energy and raw materials. I’m thinking we sacrifice the nearest of the three moons. We’d probably have to move it anyway, its orbit could become unstable when we create oceans on the planet. So, that much is possible.” He looks to McTeal who takes over again._

_“We also need to introduce a biosphere. The terramorph won’t do that for us. Luckily, we are carrying a genetics lab and the full Earth genome database. We should be able to introduce Earth-like flora and fauna, but we’ll have to adapt them to the higher gravity and lower energy sunlight. I’m sure I can do that, but are we sure we_ want _to do it?”_

_Captain Ryon can’t help noticing the nervous glances the two officers are exchanging. She raises an eyebrow. “OK, what's the catch?”_

* * *

“Kara, do you think time travel is possible?” 

Alex and Kara are trying to eat lunch at the DEO after a morning of hunting a radioactive alien through the city sewers. Between the sewer smells and the decon-shower chemicals, it’s hard for Alex to work up an appetite. 

“Yeah, sure. Hey, don’t you want those?” Kara starts eating Alex’s fries. 

“You sound awfully certain?” 

“You remember last time I went to Barry-world?” 

“Of course I remember! You were gone for days!” Alex is still a little grumpy about that. Kara hadn’t even left a note. 

“Well, Barry told me he had traveled back in time and changed history. Didn’t go as planned, people were angry about it. Oh, and they had this time-ship too, but I didn’t get to try it.” 

“You never told me that before!” This is not helping on the grumpiness. 

“You only asked what I had been doing, and I really just fought Dominators. And was mind controlled by them. That was _awful_. Anyway, you haven’t met the other guys, so I didn’t think you were interested.” 

Alex recognizes Kara’s “playing innocent” face. It means she knows she’s done something wrong, but probably isn’t entirely sure what. 

“The people, maybe, but _a time ship_? You didn’t think your scientist sister would want to hear about that? Did you tell Winn?” 

“Winn? No, why?” 

“Never mind. Anyway, time travel is possible, at least in a parallel universe, so let’s assume it’s possible here too.” 

“Alex? What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?” Kara is feeling very … conscious about herself, the way Alex is studying her. 

Alex keeps looking a little longer, just because it seems to make Kara uncomfortable. She hasn’t entirely forgiven her sister for keeping something like this back. “Kara, I have a weird idea about Krypton.” 

* * *

_“Well …” Lee begins_

_“About that, … ” McTeal continues, “OK, just changing the animals and plants won’t be enough. They’ll probably thrive, but we won’t. For two reasons. First is that we need to adapt to the gravity as well, and will probably need to be protected from ultraviolet radiation. The other is that our ship only carries a crew of around 200. That’s not enough for a long-term sustainable population. If we want to survive more than a few generations, we need to do something drastic.”_

_“Such as?”_

_“First of all, a thorough genetic modification of everybody, just so the first generation can survive, and second, … cloning. Again, we have the genome database, so we can create new humans with any trait we want, we’re not limited to those of the crew, as long as we do it in a lab. That will prevent the otherwise inevitable inbreeding. And we can grow the population gradually. With good enough robots, we can do it faster than if we needed two parents for everybody.”_

_Captain Ryon sighs. “I’m sure you realize the irony.”_

* * *

“Time travel? That’s your idea?” Kara asks incredulously. 

“Yeah, that’s what I said too. But it makes sense, at least a kind of sense. Humans, from the future, finds a way to travel back through time. And they’re probably also great at genetic engineering by then. So, they travel back in time, find a planet and settle on it. Maybe they are fleeing something, a disaster or persecution, and decide to hide in the far past. Maybe they were exiled.” 

“So Kryptonians, and Daxamites too, are descendants of Earth?” Kara still sounds more than a little skeptical. 

“It would explain a lot. But if people lived on Krypton for hundreds of thousands of years, and they were so great at genetic manipulation, why are there so _few_  differences. They could easily have changed completely, instead of looking almost exactly the same as the original humans.” 

“Because Rao created you perfect, so you shouldn’t change it.” Kara’s voice becomes deeper, more solemn, ” _You can polish Rao’s statue, you cannot build your own_ , and for the record, that sounds much more cool in Kryptonese, but it was the rule for genetic sciences—it means you could improve things as long as you didn’t change anything fundamental.” 

“That sounds awfully … static.” 

“That’s what Krypton was. We still remembered the last big upheaval, the war about clone rights. That was a thousand centuries ago. It was all _very_  traditional, very much don’t-rock-the-boat. Our entire society was build around stability first, that’s why it was able to last for so long. And probably why nobody would believe that a disaster was coming. They simply couldn’t imagine change.” 

“Still, evolution would …” 

Kara shakes her head. “Not on Krypton. We didn’t have any real evolution, like, ever. Parents were selected and their genes were combined in the matrix. Not genes from their bodies, but the original pattern that they were grown from. We did improved the matrix itself, which made new children better, but it was always about being healthier or more efficient, not about _change_.” 

“No evolutionary pressure and no mutation.” Alex boggles at the thought. “That would mean no evolution at all. With a stable society like that, you could have humans colonists that stayed mostly human for hundreds of millennia.” 

“I guess so,” Kara agrees, “but they would have to be really weird _humans_ though. I can’t imagine a human society standing still like that.” 

* * *

_Captain Ryon grimaces. “We, the flagship of the Preservationist Army, are going to genetically modify ourselves. It’s the opposite of everything we have fought for. We were going to take the terramorph to Earth and make it habitable by unaltered humans again, and instead we create one more planet for modified humans!”_

_“True,” Lee sympathizes with the frustration, “I wish I could see a good alternative—or any alternative, really.”_

_Ryon nods heavily. “I know. Beggars can’t be choosers. Our mission has failed, so my primary responsibility, my only responsibility, is the safety of the crew. Do it.”_

_Terraforming a planet takes years. Creating a biosphere takes decades. Modifying the crew was easy compared to either, so most of the crew of Rebel Arrow One moved to the surface as soon as the atmosphere was stable and a few makeshift cities had been built. Before the first seed was sown and the first micro-organism released into the soil, the cloning chambers were already up and running. There was a plan, a bold plan, to populate an entire planet with humans. It would be the best humans possible, created from the best pairings of genes in the genome database, but they would still be as purely human as the planet allowed._

_It was also a very strict plan. Create too few children, and the population wouldn’t be big enough for the next steps. Create too many, and there wouldn’t be enough food. And not enough adults to teach the children what it means to be human._

_Finally, after more than thirty years, and now with a human population of more than two thousand people, the planet is as ready as it’ll get._

_“Captain, are you sure?” Lee knows the answer, but he feels he has to try one more time._

_“I’m sure, Lee. I’m too old for this, and too stubborn. I’d just be in the way. You don’t need a captain on a planet.”_

_McTeal shakes his head. “We do need you, captain. We couldn’t have done this without you.”_

_“I’m sure you could, but thanks anyway. Still, it’s done now, and it’s time to pass the reigns to someone else. The first children, they are already older than you were when we started this, and they are doing magnificently. I’m sure they’ll be able to handle everything.”_

_“Still, are you sure you won’t come down and see it?” Lee suggests, again._

_“You know I didn’t get the adaption, and I still won’t. I’m the dinosaur now, and I’m ready to go extinct. I’ll fly the ship into the sun, just as my original orders said, to make sure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.”_

_Lee and McTeal exchange glances. They know the reasoning—for the planet to work, everybody needs to be committed. There shouldn’t be an escape-hatch waiting in orbit. “And you still think we shouldn’t teach them about Earth?”_

_Ryon nods. “Yes. I’ve had a lot of time to think, and I’m sure it’s for the best. I don’t want generations of people yearning for a far-away planet. We must teach them to be humans, the best humans they can be on the planet where they belong, and that won’t happen if they think of themselves as second-rate Earthlings exiled from their real home.”_

_“So, this is it?” McTeal bows his head._

_“Chin up, Rick. It’s been a great adventure, and I’m proud of you all. Keep going forward, that’s where the future lies.” She waves at the camera. “Captain Ryon of Rebel Arrow One, signing off.”_

_She cuts the connection and gives in to the coughing fit she's been suppressing. They've gotten worse, and she knows it's only a matter of days, weeks at most, before she'll be too sick to fool anyone. Might as well go out while you are still on top, and do it with style. “Ship, activate protocol Sundiver, Captain's override.”_

__

* * *

_Lee steps back from the stone obelisk. “I know she said we shouldn’t dwell on the past, but I think she deserves to be at least mentioned.”_

_McTeal smiles. “Short, and to the point. She’d have liked that. I wonder what future generations will make of this.”_

_The “monument” is a simple stone spike, only six feet tall and a foot wide. It has been polished and a few words engraved on it._

  
Cpt  
Ryon  
of  
R.A.O.  



End file.
